Nick Monteleone has been doing plumbing work in Gulf Shores for more than 25 years.

During that time, he says he has performed dozens of jobs specifically for the city. It appears, however, as if the water has been cut off on Monteleone’s latest plumbing job for the city of Gulf Shores.

Monteleone approached the council at Monday’s committee of the whole meeting saying he felt that the city had taken money out of his pocket by only allowing him to do half of a job that he had been given to do.

Da Water Werks, Monteleone’s local plumbing company, was hired to do work on the remodeling of the city’s municipal building that sits adjacent to City Hall.

“The reason I’m here is because I feel like the city is taking advantage of me,” Monteleone told council members. Mayor Robert Craft had to leave the meeting early and was not present when Monteleone addressed the council.

“Everybody here knows me and the kind of work I do,” said Monteleone,. “When I start a job, I always finish a job.”

Monteleone said he was contacted by the city to submit a bid for the remodeling job. He said that he was asked to break down the bid into stages of the job, which he did.

“We were told that we had the job. We had obtained the permits, we had done the rough in, and we passed all of the inspections. I still don’t have a final inspection on the rough in, due to the fact that the mayor, who is not here and is the one I wanted to talk to, is the one who made the changes to the plans.”

Monteleone says he was told by David Peleschak, Gulf Shores’ maintenance department supervisor, that the city planed to finish the plumbing job in-house.

“They are not really interested in having a licensed plumber to do the work, or I guess a plumber with insurance, who is bonded and licensed through the state. They have decided they don’t want to do that anymore,” Monteleone said. “It has kind of put me in a bad situation, because it is kind of taking food off my table.”

The initial part of the job was completed by Monteleone for $7,500, but it is the backend of the job that Monteleone claims was taken from him.

“They wanted an estimate for the cost of the fixtures. I did that and I even found a way to save them some money. And I gave them a price for completing the job, which was $4,500. We are just missing the last two parts of the job.”

Mark Acreman, director of public works said that the city solicited quotes for the initial part of the job only, and said that the purchase orders show it was only for doing the rough- in.

“He was the low quote, and he was given a P.O. that only stated rough-in,” Acreman told the council. “He was given his price and it was for the rough-in only.”

Monteleone says he never received the purchase order.

“I have received nothing from the city. I have never received anything from the city and I have been working for the city of Gulf Shores for years,” Monteleone said.

“We gave him a purchase order for one task,” Acreman insisted. “He was paid for that task, he has completed that task.”

Acreman said they did ask for quotes from Monteleone on fixtures, but that the city was within its legal rights to do their own installation.

“They want to go to Lowe’s and buy their stuff and leave out my profit, which is not the beginning of the job and the hard part, which is putting all the pipes in and running all the water lines, and passing all of the inspections. I’ve already done all of that,” Monteleone said. “But then if it leaks, they will end up calling me to fix it, I guarantee it.”

Monteleone told Gulf Coast Newspapers that he is not asking for something for nothing. He simply wants to be allowed to finish the job he started, but said it was unlikely, after this, that he would do any more work for the city.

Councilman Philip Harris, who has experience in the construction business, said that typically, a general contractor would probably not hire a plumber to do only part of a job, but that the standard for the city from a legal perspective is different than that of a contractor.

“I don’t know what our history is here or what we have done in the past,” said Harris.

Acreman said the work Monteleone has done in past has been repair work, not new construction.

When asked how the issue could be rectified, Acreman said that would be a decision for the elected officials.

“This is for the mayor and council to decide,”  Acreman said. “He has been paid for the work that he was issued a purchase order to do.”